Saratoga County Clerk Kathy Marchione has a 15 point lead over Robin Andrews and Sen. Roy McDonald is 11 points back, according to a poll of the 43rd Senate District by Siena Research Institute.

McDonald, though, suspended his campaign after losing a bitter Republican Party primary but remains on the ballot on the Independence Party line.

Marchione has the support of 40 percent of likely voters, followed by McDonald with 29 percent and Andrews at 25 percent, with 6 percent undecided or not voting in this race.

The question asked was as follows: "After losing the Republican primary, Roy McDonald announced that despite remaining on the Independence Party line on the ballot, he would not be campaigning for re-election. In light of that, if the election for State Senator was held today, who would you vote for if the candidates were:" the order of the three candidates and their party affiliation was rotated.

Advertisement

Marchione has the support of 62 percent of Republicans, in this district with a 7-point Republican enrollment edge, with McDonald getting 26 percent and Andrews eight percent. Andrews, the supervisor of the Columbia County town of Claverack, gets 55 percent support among Democrats, followed by McDonald 25 percent and Marchione 13 percent. Independents are divided with 38 percent supporting Marchione, 35 percent supporting McDonald and 20 percent Andrews.

"It's not often that we see a major party candidate in third place, however, there are clearly a large number of voters in the 43rd district who continue to have good feelings about their incumbent senator," said Siena pollster Steve Greenberg. "Marchione is garnering the lion's share of Republican votes, a bare plurality of independent votes and a modicum of Democratic votes. Combined that's enough to give her an 11-point lead in what is surprisingly a three-person race involving two active candidates."

In the 46th Senate District, which includes Greene, Montgomery, Schenectady, and Ulster counties, Republican Assemblyman George Amedore leads Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk 47-44 percent. And In the 55th District, which includes Monroe and Ontario counties, Democrat Ted O'Brien leads Republican Assemblyman Sean Hanna 50 to 39, according to the poll released Friday.

"These three seats -- two currently held by Republicans -- are seen as among the key races in the Democrats' attempt to retake the majority in the Senate next year. In order for there to be 32 Democrats in the new 63-member Senate, Democrats have to hold two downstate seats -- the 15th in Queens and the 37th in Westchester -- that previous Siena polling showed to be tight races, and win three additional seats," said Siena pollster Steve Greenberg. "The Republicans believe they have a strong chance of maintaining the majority and of winning one or both of those seats."

These SRI Senate surveys were conducted from Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 by telephone calls to likely voters in each Senate District. For the 43rd SD, 489 voters were included in the sample, with a margin of error of + 4.4 percentage points. For the 46th SD, 461 voters were included in the sample, with a margin of error of + 4.6 percentage points. For the 55th SD, 476 voters were included in the sample, margin of error + 4.5.